David And Tracey In The Guardian

...a sailor with a girl...

This morning's Guardian newspaper here in the UK has in its G2 pullout section a wonderfully entertaining e-mail correspondence between David Bowie and Tracey Emin. The "edited transcript of their correspondence" is explained thus: "When David Bowie decided to set up a virtual gallery for art students, he began an email discussion with Tracey Emin about art, drugs and fame."

We will be posting David's full unedited text tomorrow, but in the meantime here follows a few excerpts from the Guardian piece:

Bowie on "Popping out": "For me, living in downtown New York and without the all-pervading British press on 24-hour call, it's a non-existent problem. "Popping out" is carried out several times a day hereabouts, though of course I do find it expedient to have a train of Lincoln town cars following me at a crawl in case I get a sore ankle."

Bowie on fatherhood and Alex's effect on his "golden years": "She's already affected them. The added dimension to life, of course, is inescapable. Thinking for and on Alex's behalf. Trying to second-guess how she will develop. Continually looking for ways that I can help her. All that."

Bowie on fame: "I certainly fancied my own spoonful of it when I was young. I was more than downcast to find that fame brought nothing more than good seats in a restaurant. There is nothing there to covet."

Bowie on drugs: "Mmm... having experienced drugs, the work is never the same again. Station to Station was a drug album. Low and Heroes were not. Never Let Me Down was. It's all contradictory."

Emin on Bowie: "Throughout my life your music has had a big influence on me. I remember at the age of 14 vomiting at the end of Rock 'n' Roll Suicide after drinking a bottle of sherry, and in later years sailing down the Nile listening to Young Americans on a Walkman full blast." To which David replied: "I also remember vomiting at the end of Rock 'n' Roll Suicide. I remember vomiting at the end of quite a few songs."

David and Tracey have been friends for some time, and you may remember David's piece about Ms Emin for Modern Painters back in the October 1997 edition of the magazine, entitled: "It's Art Jim, but as We Know It", written around some chats in Dublin with Tracey. Anyway, you can read the full transcript of today's Guardian piece here.

At the end of the piece is a plug for the Bowieart Window Pain Project and The Goldsmiths visual arts postgraduate degree shows 2001, which run from 20th - 23rd July. Visit www.goldsmiths.ac.uk for details. The Goldsmiths visual art postgraduates can be seen on BowieArt from tomorrow.

On a final note, the cover of G2 has a piece entitled 'The Man Who Fell To Earth', but be warned, this harrowing and tragic story doesn't deal with the trials and tribulations of TJ Newton, but with the horrific story of Mohammed Ayez, who, after freezing to death as a stowaway in the wheel bay of a London-bound Boeing 777, ended up an unrecognisable mess in a superstore car park in west London. Mohammed Ayez's body fell from the wheel bay as the aircraft started it's decent to Heathrow. His was the fourth body to be found in the area in similar condition, and no doubt, will not be the last.)